Most deranged thing you’ve done in a driving lesson/test?

[Shania7788]

My test is coming up soon. Been doing really well but I made the stupidest mistake today and I’m too embarrassed to tell anyone I know in real life. But I need to tell someone before I spend the whole week thinking about this before I fall asleep.

I was following a route I’ve done before but never with the satnav. Approached a mini roundabout before dual carriageway slip road and was going straight over/2nd exit. I must’ve heard ‘turn right…’ or something and been daydreaming, because I went the wrong way around the roundabout 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️😩. It’s such a stupid mistake that I’m half convinced the satnav showed an anti-clockwise diagram that I followed blindly. So dangerous of me and ridiculous because I live on a road with three mini roundabouts! Argh!!!

My teacher says the rest of my driving is great and doesn’t want to move the test but it really shook me (and him I think!!) obviously I’ve never done it before.

Please tell me your stupid and deranged mistakes/decisions as a learner to make me feel better and push this out of my mind!

Forgot to put car in gear during my hill start on my test, was given another chance and was so flustered I forgot the second time too 🤦‍♀️

I passed the first time (more good luck than good management) but cried to the instructor on my way back to the test centre because “I had failed”… he just kept saying drive they way you have been driving until we get back please (in my head because it I was a bawhair from killing us both so he was ok not to just get out the car) 😂😂😂

I took 4 tests and had the same examiner for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. I kept saying to my instructor I better not get him again and when he walked out to the waiting area I actually mumbled for fucks sake to my instructor. I had developed an irrational hatred towards the poor guy for failing me for my shit driving 😂. He came over and introduced himself and I was just like yes we've already met. I passed and decided I loved him after that 😂

Drove through a stop sign on my first test. Failed, obv.

I ran a red light on a test, it was a little temporary set of lights while the main ones were broken. Not sure how I didn't see the red though.

On another test at the bit where you have to look under the bonnet, as I slammed it shut I knocked the keys out of my other hand and they bounced onto a drain cover. Luckily the examiner stuck his foot out and stopped them falling down the drain. He said there wasn't a section on the paperwork for failing due to keys in a drain so he was pretty pleased to have stopped them I think.

But if someone as clumsy as me eventually passed and has been driving 20 years with no accidents, you'll be fine op.

Not on a test but a school friend on one of her first few driving lessons aged 17 caused the instructor to slam on the dual control brakes when she nearly ploughed through a red light (one of the overhead type lights that are suspended over the road).
When the instructor asked her why she hadn't stopped she said, "I thought those lights were for low flying aircraft".

Superb thread!

If its any consolation there is a mini roundabout near me which must be slightly off in how it's laid out. Every time I approach it I have to actively think which way to drive around it. Its very odd, I've been driving donkeys years and it's just this one roundabout .

Pick whichever you want....

Pulled out at the start of the test and only realised at the bottom of the hill I hadn't started the car.

Hit a parked car (about 100m from the end of the test which I'd passed up until then, sigh)

Stopped at a green light. Don't even remember it but that's what the examiner said.

Pulled my handbrake on so hard I couldn't release it. Apparently asking the examiner for help is an automatic fail.

All in tests. There were a few more as well.

I've been passed nearly 30 years now and never had a point on my license. I'm just terrified of ever having to take the test again, but at least it keeps me and the rest of the world safe.

Drove on the wrong side of the road on my second test. Got into lane 3 to turn right at a roundabout but due to extreme nerves, totally missed signs that said due to roadworks, lane 3 had temporarily been turned into 'the other side of the road'. There were huge whacking great yellow signs and up ahead there were even cones, but I still missed it. I was only in the lane for a few seconds before the examiner barked at me, 'you're on the wrong side of the road'. Obviously I'd failed but he still made me complete the final 20 minutes of the test instead of just directing me back to the test centre.

Finally passed on my 4th attempt and in my joy, accidentally hit the horn and frightened the life out of us all.

Drive into a ditch then reversed at some speed into a fence. Outstanding work for my first lesson.

I was on my test aged 17, reversed around the corner , I knew I'd messed up as I hit the kerb but instead of just pulling forward a bit and redoing it, I decided for some stupid reason to keep going. I ended up with the whole car on the pavement and had to do a 3 point turn on the pavement to get off. No surprise I failed the test but I was so stressed about it, I gave up driving and started again when I was 25.

Not in my test, but when I was learning. Late evening sun got in my eyes and I drove clean over a massive roundabout. It had trees and flowers on it and everything.

Hit a wall (gently) when parking at the end of the test. Couldn't believe it when he told me I'd passed. Obviously didn't argue with him either.

My instructor said 'keep right' and I was really confused as it was a one-lane road so steered onto the other side of the road, into oncoming traffic. 🤦‍♀️

I did similar on a mini roundabout while learning.

My instructor repeated herself a lot and it got in my head. One day, she told me to turn right at the mini roundabout about half a dozen times in the lead up to it. Then when we got to it, she started pointing at the road she wanted me to drive down and saying 'that way, right, that way, right'. For whatever batshit reason, I just turned, so right that I went backwards around the roundabout, and ended up positioned to drive down the wrong side of the (thankfully empty) road on exiting.

Passed my test first time after changing to an instructor who gave me instructions a reasonable number of times.

One of my “questions” was what is the procedure when approaching a roundabout. I rattled it off glibly and the examiner, rather sourly I thought, said “Oh, you do know it then.” I passed though.

Not a test but I have done the same! We moved to the continent when I was a very new driver and I was going back and forth to the U.K. for a while. I picked up my (U.K.) car from the long-term parking at Heathrow and immediately went the wrong way round a roundabout. Luckily it was late at night and there was no-one around.

Also at Heathrow, reversed into the person behind me at about 2mph trying to escape from the drop off area.

Went through a red light with a police car behind me It was snowy (in London!) and I was looking so hard at the road I missed the light. No other traffic around. I was pulled over which scared the life out of me.

Haven't done anything stupid recently (touch wood).

I took my test 4 times, 3 with the same examiner. First test I had 3 major faults including forcing my way against oncoming traffic when I didn't have right of way. I think the examiner had to use the controls as well. The time I passed I was sure I'd failed on the parallel parking and the examiner twitched towards the steering wheel at one point... so probably relaxed after that.

I nearly put the gear from 5th into reverse (I was aiming for 4th) on a dual carriageway in the instructor's car. It made a very nasty noise. In my defence, it wasn't his usual car, and I was used to reverse being above 1st, not below 5th.

A friend hit a pheasant on her driving test.

I failed my first test setting off from the test centre - there was no car park, so you had to park uphill on quite a busy road. I was waiting so long to get out, that when I finally spotted a gap, I revved, let the clutch out, released the handbrake...and rolled backwards at speed as I hadn't put the car in gear. The examiner had to use the dual controls, otherwise I'd have gone into the car behind. They didn't stop the test though, and I only got two minors the rest of the test! Then I failed four times on manoeuvres. On the test where I actually passed, I was supposed to go straight on at a junction that had a separate lane for turning right. I got into the right turn lane to get past all the cars that I thought were "parked" in the left lane, then realised they were actually queuing for the lights so had to turn right!

3 point turn during my test, next to a canal. As I was doing one of the turns it appeared to the copper I was backing into the canal. He reached for the handbrake. I was in total control and hit the brake myself! At the end he said come on then before I change my mind. I went to school with his daughter, I wonder if he still thinks about his ‘close call’ 😂

During my test I went over the kerb driving out of the test centre, then I went down a steep hill in third gear (thought the car sounded funny!!!!), then I again went over the kerb when in reverse. But I still passed LOL. I think he was shell shocked and never wanted to see me again. hee hee

I’m learning at the moment, 3-point turn and reverse round the corner are no longer manoeuvres on driving tests. I’m dreading getting parallel parking though :(

I stopped at a green light last week, despite the fact the cars in front of me were moving, and I’ve been driving for four years! Mistakes happen OP, you just learn from them.

On one my lessons I turned right but forgot to check there was no oncoming traffic. Unfortunately, there was and the instructor had to use his brake.

I failed my first test (parallel parking, which I was usually brilliant at) and my instructor who I got on really well with was in such a bad mood with me that I ended up dumping him and taking the test in my own car on my second attempt, and passed.

Taking my first test in an unfamiliar town, coming to a junction on a quiet country lane the examiner said turn right when it is safe to do so…
I did into the oncoming traffic on a dual carriageway!!! I was completely unaware that you could join a dual carriageway from a junction, I only thought you could from slip roads and roundabouts! I had to then reverse back and turn onto the central reservation turning gap…I got D for dangerous! My instructor was impressed as he’d never had a student get a D before!